Low level impedance changes following the spike in the squid giant axon before and after treatment with "veratrine" alkaloids

Abstract

The increase in conductance, which accompanies the spike in the presence of sea water, is followed by a decrease to below the resting level, here designated as the "initial after-impedance," which lasts 3 msec. and is 3 per cent as great as the increase. Treatment with cevadine usually obliterates the latter but leaves the former essentially unaltered. In addition, the alkaloid gives rise to periodic conductance increases followed by a prolonged, exponentially decaying elevated conductance (the "negativity after-impedance") which correspond closely to potential oscillations and to the negative after-potential. These are also only a few per cent of the major conductance change. Veratridine causes a conductance increase which lasts longer and which also conforms closely with earlier after-potential results. Preliminary calculations indicate that the negativity after-impedance and the negative after-potential may be due to the subsidence of an elevated chloride permeability. However, no satisfactory explanation is available for the initial after-impedance or for the temporal course of the conductance changes associated with oscillations in membrane potential.